Field of the Invention
The present invention lies in the pharmacological field of topical disinfectants. More specifically, the invention pertains to a non-toxic mucosal disinfectant that is effective against various pathogenic organisms which cause infectious processes.
The following specification is, to a large extent, related to a commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,296,882 B1 issued to Manuel Viamonte, Jr. The earlier patent is herewith incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Infectious diseases remain the leading cause of death. While some microorganisms are path ogens (a microorganism capable of causing disease), most microorganisms that are found in the human body are innocuous. For example, more than 600 species of bacteria inhabit the large bowel of a human. Not only are the majority of human microorganisms innocuous but they play useful, if unseen roles. These microorganisms provide a necessary part of the development pathways required for the maturation of human intestinal mucosa and our innate local immune system protects us against harmful microorganisms and helps the digestion of food.
Most of human microbes are commensal. Commensal or transient microbes can be an opportunistic pathogen of humans; namely, they can cause disease if one or more defense mechanisms are breached by accident, medical intent, or an underlying metabolic or even infectious disorder.
Human beings are exposed to nosocomial as well as nosohusial infections. Many microorganisms are adapted exclusively to humans and other animals and many pathogenic microorganisms have learned to circumvent, exploit, subvert or avoid our normal cellular mechanisms to multiply at human expense. Some microbes have made the transition from harmless commensal to potentially fatal infectious agents.
Increases in the world population, rapid travel between distant regions, high concentration of individuals in small areas, the wide spread use of air conditioning and heating equipment without air exchange, the large number of people traveling in confined areas (i.e., aircraft, trains, buses, and automobiles), have resulted in the increase in the number of pathogenic organisms and the increase of mutations of organisms. These effects are currently vividly illustrated by the evolving virus-transmitted SARS pandemic (severe acute respiratory syndrome). Human transfer infections are on the rise in light of the increasing internationalization and the increasing population densities around the world.
Thus, there is a need for effective protective measures to decrease the number and severity of respiratory infections. Some societies use face masks as a protection against respiratory infections—see, for example, the apparent efforts by some Asian and North American populations to protect against SARS infection. In many situations, however, the use of face masks are an impractical, inefficient and largely ineffective way to prevent dissemination of infection.
It is highly desirable to protect the nasal mucosa from pathogenic organisms. In those individuals with active respiratory infection, it is also desirable to decrease the likelihood of dissemination of infection by decreasing the number and/or virulence of the pathogenic organisms expelled during exhaling, sneezing, and/or coughing through the use of a topically applied nasal disinfectant and to also reduce or eliminate disease transmissions through the fingers and hand of an infected person.